Since Agon is my take on D&D, I wanted to have PCs that grow in effectiveness as play goes on. Leveling up in D&D was always a fun reward, and I wanted that same feel. However, one thing that always bothered me about D&D was the fact that your opposition leveled up with you. At level 1, you fought goblins and rats. At level 5, you fought ogres and trolls. So, you were never really "more powerful" since the adventures were always beefed up to match your level.

I wanted to avoid this with Agon. That's why the GM gets a fixed Strife budget. Individual monsters grow in power relative to the Names of the heroes, but the overall adversity the GM can bring does not increase. So heroes get "more powerful" relative to the problems they face, but they still have to fight tough individual creatures who will give them a challenge.